The path to success in academic science is often fraught with unexpected turns. No matter how much you plan your route, be prepared to make adjustments. During 2004, while I was a Graduate Journal writer for Naturejobs, I finished my PhD at Rockefeller University in New York. I decided to move to France for my first postdoc, to gain an international perspective.

I was having a good experience at the Pasteur Institute when an unexpected family situation forced me to return to the United States. Although I enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere (and the cafeteria) at the Pasteur, I learnt that with shrinking funds and a scarcity of tenured or tenure-track academic positions, it is equally difficult in the United States and Europe for new PhDs to penetrate the hierarchy as independent researchers.

I recently began a postdoc at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Growing up nearby, I often visited the lab at the National Cancer Institute where my grandmother, Alfreda Simmons, worked. She was one of the few African-American women doing lab work at the NIH at the time, and it is fitting that I'm now at the same place, developing vaccines for cancer and HIV.

Travelling down my winding academic career path has taught me how to cope with unforeseen detours. But my goal remains the same: distinguishing myself as a top-notch independent investigator in the not-too-distant future.